Empire Cricket Booklet

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R.M. POORE

season. The pair put on 273 for the first wicket, the highest-ever partnership in Natal cricket at the time.

widespread disbelief when this did not happen. The reasons were not clear, but it is possible that failure in the big games for the Gentlemen raised doubts about his temperament. Instead, with a batting average of 91.23 and a total of 1 551 runs, Poore slipped from the scene, returning to military duties having topped the first-class averages. Poore and the South African War With events in South Africa turning for the worse, Poore waited for instructions for several weeks. When they came they were initially unexpected, as he was sent to New Orleans, via New York (where he was amazed by the size of the buildings), to take charge of a cargo of mules bound for South Africa. 27 According to the evidence available, he was in the United States for just eighteen hours and on his return was sent to South Africa. Inevitably, on the journey he managed to fit in some cricket - a game on the Cape Verde islands against a team of telegraph clerks. Britain went to war with the Transvaal and the Orange Free State on 11 October 1899 after several years of heightening tension over the rich resources of southern Africa and 'two and a half centuries of Afrikaner expansion and conflict with Africans and British'. 28 At the start, the struggle appeared to be uneven, with the might of the British empire confronted by armies of loosely organised commandos, but this proved not to be the case, as the Transvaalers advanced on Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley, and the Orange Free Staters moved southwards. The British Army was deployed to relieve the towns, but in early December suffered three serious defeats at Stormberg, Colenso and Magersfontein. The commander-in-chief, General Buller, was replaced later in the month by Field Marshal Roberts, who arrived in January 1900 with his second in command, Major-General Kitchener. Poore returned to Cape Town on 3 January, and a week later was at the Terminus station to meet the new commander-in-chief. He arranged suitable transport for Roberts, and the following weeks were taken up with making preparations to allow for the implementation of plans for advancing up the rail line from Cape Town. On 5 February, a large contingent of

An Exceptional Year Back Home: 1899

Poore returned to England with an impressive reputation, making his Hampshire debut during the summer of 1898. He played fifteen first-class games, but his average of just over 28 was modest and, although he made two centuries, there was little indication of what was to come. The next year, 1899, was Poore's year. Without it, he would have almost certainly been classed as just